Afghan Couple Accuses US Marine Of Abducting Toddler In Lawsuit

A couple from Afghanistan has filed a lawsuit against a U.S. Marine accusing him of abducting their child but the latter said in a counterargument that he has the child's legal custody.

The unidentified couple, referred to as Jane and John Doe, said in the lawsuit that U.S. Marine Corps Attorney Major Joshua Mast forcefully took away the child after helping the couple arrive in America for the child's medical treatment during the chaotic pullout of U.S. troops from the Afghan soil in August 2021, the Associated Press reported.

The lawsuit accused Mast and his wife Stephanie of conspiracy, fraud, and false imprisonment related to what was described as the unlawful abduction of the child.

The young girl was only two months old when she lost her parents and five siblings to a U.S. Special Forces raid in 2019. The child, the sole survivor in the family, was discovered in the rubble and was transported to a U.S. military hospital for treatment.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul as well as representatives from the Red Cross reportedly made all possible efforts to reunite the child with the next of kin but had no luck.

Mast petitioned the Juvenile and Domestic Relations court in his home jurisdiction of Fluvanna County in Virginia for the custody of the child-- an act that he called a service to the Christian faith to rescue a war orphan, and sought the intervention of Trump's top officials to facilitate a verdict in his favor, Insider reported.

While Mast continued the process to adopt the baby, Red Cross tracked down her first cousin and his wife, the couple involved in the lawsuit. In the meantime, Mast was reportedly given the baby's custody in Virginia.

On the child's second birthday, Mast told the couple in a phone call to bring Baby Doe to the U.S. for medical attention for injuries she suffered at the 2019 raid but the couple declined. Then, during the U.S. troop withdrawal, Mast again reached out to the couple with the same appeal, and this time they agreed.

The lawsuit claimed that as soon as they touched down in Washington D.C., they were shocked to see Mast produce an Afghan passport for the baby--with his own last name printed on the document, the AP reported.

The suit alleges that Mast used his position as a Marine to fraudulently acquire the child's custody and further accuses Mast of violating Article 12 of Afghanistan's law which prohibits any non-Muslim or a person who isn't an Afghan national to adopt a child under their jurisdiction.

"Defendants have caused irreversible harm to an innocent toddler and Plaintiffs John and Jane Doe," the suit read, according to the AP. "As her true family and legal guardians, they raised Baby Doe for 18 months before the abduction and love her as their own child. Though this lawsuit can never make them whole, Defendants must be held accountable for their unconscionable actions."

Mast and his wife, Stephanie, filed a motion last week to have the motion dismissed. The wife of Baby Doe's first cousin said they haven't seen the child since she was taken away from them.

"After they took her, our tears never stop," the woman told Associated Press. "Right now, we are just dead bodies. Our hearts are broken. We have no plans for a future without her. Food has no taste and sleep gives us no rest."